Genetic and experimental evidence for cross-species infection by swine hepatitis E virus.

ABSTRACT: Prior to the recent discovery of the swine hepatitis E virus (swine HEV) in pigs from the midwestern United States, HEV was not considered endemic to this country. Since swine HEV is antigenically and genetically related to human strains of HEV, it was important to characterize this new virus further. The infectivity titer of a pool of swine HEV in pigs was determined in order to prepare a standardized reagent and to evaluate the dose response in pigs. Although the sequence of swine HEV varied extensively from those of most human strains of HEV, it was very closely related to the two strains of human HEV (US-1 and US-2) isolated in the United States. The U.S. strains which were recently recovered from two patients with clinical hepatitis E in the United States shared >/=97% amino acid iden

SUBMITTER: Meng XJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC110481 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature